How epigenetic mutations can affect genetic evolution: Model and mechanism

Klironomos, Filippos; Berg, Johannes; Collins, Sinéad

doi:10.1002/bies.201200169

Cited by 219 publications

(292 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Pure epigenetic variation may also help populations respond to environmental change. A recent theoretical study has suggested that when selection acts on pure epigenetic variation as opposed to obligatory epigenetic variation, adaptive phenotypes can occur before genotypic change due to the higher rate of epimutation permitting faster exploration of the fitness landscape (Klironomos et al, 2013). However, none of the empirical work to date has addressed pure epigenetic variation in animals, possibly due to the difficulty of establishing genetically identical populations.…”

Section: The Evolutionary Potential Of Epigenetic Variationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epigenetics in natural animal populations

Barrett

2017

J of Evolutionary Biology

130

127

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Phenotypic plasticity is an important mechanism for populations to buffer themselves from environmental change. While it has long been appreciated that natural populations possess genetic variation in the extent of plasticity, a surge of recent evidence suggests that epigenetic variation could also play an important role in shaping phenotypic responses. Compared with genetic variation, epigenetic variation is more likely to have higher spontaneous rates of mutation and a more sensitive reaction to environmental inputs. In our review, we first provide an overview of recent studies on epigenetically encoded thermal plasticity in animals to illustrate environmentally-mediated epigenetic effects within and across generations. Second, we discuss the role of epigenetic effects during adaptation by exploring population epigenetics in natural animal populations. Finally, we evaluate the evolutionary potential of epigenetic variation depending on its autonomy from genetic variation and its transgenerational stability. Although many of the causal links between epigenetic variation and phenotypic plasticity remain elusive, new data has explored the role of epigenetic variation in facilitating evolution in natural populations. This recent progress in ecological epigenetics will be helpful for generating predictive models of the capacity of organisms to adapt to changing climates.

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Section: The Evolutionary Potential Of Epigenetic Variationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epigenetics in natural animal populations

Barrett

2017

J of Evolutionary Biology

130

127

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“…This may be followed by compensatory mutations that increase fitness by reversing the effect of the initial mutation on traits where change was not adaptive (46)(47)(48). Second, heritable epigenetic mutations or transgenerational plasticity can contribute to early adaptation (7) but eventually be replaced by genetic mutations (49)(50)(51)(52). Understanding how trait reversion is linked to adaptation presents an opportunity to improve our predictions of functional trait values in primary producers in aquatic environments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary consequences of multidriver environmental change in an aquatic primary producer

Brennan

Colegrave

Collins

2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Climate change is altering aquatic environments in a complex way, and simultaneous shifts in many properties will drive evolutionary responses in primary producers at the base of both freshwater and marine ecosystems. So far, evolutionary studies have shown how changes in environmental drivers, either alone or in pairs, affect the evolution of growth and other traits in primary producers. Here, we evolve a primary producer in 96 unique environments with different combinations of between one and eight environmental drivers to understand how evolutionary responses to environmental change depend on the identity and number of drivers. Even in multidriver environments, only a few dominant drivers explain most of the evolutionary changes in population growth rates. Most populations converge on the same growth rate by the end of the evolution experiment. However, populations adapt more when these dominant drivers occur in the presence of other drivers. This is due to an increase in the intensity of selection in environments with more drivers, which are more likely to include dominant drivers. Concurrently, many of the trait changes that occur during the initial short-term response to both single and multidriver environmental change revert after about 450 generations of evolution. In future aquatic environments, populations will encounter differing combinations of drivers and intensities of selection, which will alter the adaptive potential of primary producers. Accurately gauging the intensity of selection on key primary producers will help in predicting population size and trait evolution at the base of aquatic food webs.

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“…Maintaining adults at elevated temperature during gonad development and maturation can affect subsequent generations, regardless of future temperatures, through epigenetic effects, which can speed up the rate at which genetic evolution can occur (Klironomos et al, 2013). Without being able to follow single parent crosses it is not possible to assess the heritability of thermal acclimation from the current study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%